Leo Tolstoy

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Leo Tolstoy grew up on an estate and was orphaned at nine. He lived aimlessly before joining the army at 23. His army service contributed to a successful collection of stories, "Sevastapol Sketches" (1855–56); a short novel, "The Cossacks" (1863) and his long epic of the Napoleonic Wars, "War and Peace" (1865–69), one of the greatest narrative achievements in literature. Another great novel, "Anna Karenina" (1874–77), tells the parallel stories of an adulterous love between a passionate woman and a military officer, and of an introspective estate owner. After converting to what has been called Christian anarchy, Tolstoy lived a life of pacifism, poverty, and moral searching. Other fictional works include the novellas "The Death of Ivan Ilych" (1886) and "The Kreutzer Sonata" (1889). — From The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge

Magazine Desk

In Tolstoy's fiction, clothing is a disguise that rarely succeeds. He dresses his characters to explain them -- to tell us who they are, who they think they are and how we should feel about them. And in the process, he overlooks nothing -- from the size of a cuff link, to the fact that a man's coat is ready -- (not tailor) made. Tolstoy finds clothing revealing in a way that other great 19th-century novelists -- Dickens, for instance -- do not.

May 1, 1994magazineNews

Cultural Desk

At Tolstoy's vast country estate, Yasnaya Polyana, everything is just as it was when the great writer died. His pen lies on his writing table. The simple peasant blouse he always wore hangs from a peg in his bedroom. His beloved birch-lined drive still thrives. And so does the bitter fighting that divided Tolstoy's household during his last, famously unhappy years.

March 7, 1994artsNews

Sophisticated Traveler Magazine

Astapovo. It is a tiny railroad station in western Russia, unmarked in any atlas I have seen. There, in the stationmaster's humble little shack beside the tracks, a small iron bedstead was placed in the living room with, beside it, a bedside table with a lamp, a candle, matches and the sick man's notebook.

March 4, 1990travelNews

Sophisticated Traveler Magazine

The serfs are gone from Yasnaya Polyana but birches still sway on this serene piece of Russia that was universe enough for the riotous creativity of Leo Tolstoy. Here, on his aristocratic family's estate, the writer and moral reformer was born, and here he alternately despaired and then took heart from fallible humanity, reworking its lessons and language into art.

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February 4, 2012, Saturday

This month, Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the Book Review, will lead a discussion on a new translation of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace." The other panelists
are Bill Keller, Stephen Kotkin, Francine Prose and Liesl Schillinger.